Officers riding by saw argument

An Oak Hill Avenue man is in Mahoning County jail on $20,000 bond after police say he took a wallet from a man who minutes earlier had given him a couple of dollars.

Bruce Hasley, 20, was arraigned Friday in Youngstown Municipal Court on a charge of robbery before Magistrate Anthony Sertick. He was arrested in the parking lot of a West Indianola Avenue store on the South Side about 8:20 p.m. Thursday.

Reports said a man told police he was in the store with Hasley, and Hasley asked him for money. The man gave Hasley a few dollars, and Hasley asked for more. The man told Hasley he had no more, reports said.

As the man walked out of the store, Hasley grabbed the man’s arm and stuck something hard in his back as if he had a gun and told the man several times he wanted money and if the man did not give him money, Hasley would kill him.

The two then went outside and were struggling when a pair of vice-squad officers on patrol saw the fight and pulled in the parking lot to break it up, reports said.

The man told police that during the struggle Hasley took his wallet. Hasley was placed in a police car, and officers found the man’s wallet under Hasley’s car, reports said. Officers searched Hasley and did not find a gun.

At the arraignment, city Prosecutor Dana Lantz said that since he turned 18, Hasley has had arrests for assault, resisting arrest, breaking and entering and obstructing official business, and he had a felonious-assault conviction as a juvenile.

She also said in court the victim’s grandmother had, at times, fed Hasley.

Comments

Hasley has had arrests for assault, resisting arrest, breaking and entering and obstructing official business, and he had a felonious-assault conviction as a juvenile....off to a great career criminal status.